Andrew Zimmern on Twitter, Instagram, and Social Media

</head>Andrew Zimmern, the host of Bizarre Foods America, is a social-media force to be reckoned with, with 664,000 Twitter and 99,307 Instagram followers. We recently sat down with him to find out how he mobilizes his fan base to live a more delicious life.

Did you ever actually sit down and hatch a social media strategy, or did it just develop naturally?

The big thing about my social media strategy is that 98 percent of what I post, I actually post.

How do you possibly keep up with it all? You’re not only tweeting stuff out but also responding to people and staying involved in a bunch of conversations that span different worlds.

I'm always posting because I like it, and the reason I like it is because it's how I get my information. Four or five years ago, I had a CNN app on my phone and iPad. I would click on that to see the news. Now the only thing I look at is Twitter and Instagram. I don't use my New York Times app or my CNN app, because I follow and favorite the right people—both the media entities themselves and the writers I like at those newspapers and blogs and magazines. So my news is customized and all that stuff comes directly to me. It’s one click instead of three.

Many celebrities follow, like, three people. But you follow a ton. What sources are you looking to?

I try to follow as many chefs and line cooks as I can. There are big food events, like James Beard dinners, every weekend. I follow along on Instagram, and if I see a new name liking the same things as me, I’ll look at where they cook or what they’re interested in—that’s how I find cool people to follow.

So you’re not only looking at the things you’re interested in, but trying to discover like-minded folks?

Oh, obsessively. I’ll give you an example: It's great to follow David Chang, but he doesn't tweet that much. His chefs, however, are tweeting all the time. So they're a better way to see what's actually being cooked in his restaurants. If you're really obsessed with baseball, you know who's on your favorite team's farm system. Same thing.

"We are posting things we believe give us status, much in the same way that, in the tribal world, things like jewelry and war paint tell you how many goats someone owns. This is our filthy lucre."

You’re always engaged in really nerdy food conversations about stuff like Alex Stupak and Grant Achatz’s Push Project, but you also have a national audience that probably doesn’t know those people. Do you ever see those followers butting up against each other in funny ways?

Yeah, it’s hysterical. I'll tweet something about a super-precious food dinner in Hong Kong that was auctioned off two years ago, with some famous Asian chef cooking the meal. And I'll get tweets back from average Joes in the Ozarks who follow me because they like my hunting stuff, and they're like, "What the fuck? Who is this and why do I care?" But I like being able to bridge those worlds and preach the same message I do in my show. The information age is shrinking the world; it's important for people in Canton, Ohio, to know what's going on in Guangzhou—formerly Canton, China.

Does the nature of your show attract an international following as well?

Most of my followers are American, but I have followings in many countries around the world relative to American food media. I treasure those comments more than anything. I pay a lot of attention to tweets from the Philippines or Italy or Santiago, Chile. I'm fascinated by how people are living their lives in other parts of the world.

“Soon we’re gonna have real-time streaming video to share with friends. Snapchat is just the beginning: We’re going to see personal broadcast systems—’PBS’ for the next generation.”

You were a very early adopter of Vine. Has your opinion on it changed as you’ve used it more?

I was a very early adopter, but then it got co-opted by people doing six-second stop-motion and humor videos. The audience is different now, and all I see is people making Vines of fart balloons. I’m thrilled that Instagram went to a video format.

What are your Twitter pet peeves?

The "gotcha" police on Twitter are absolutely repugnant. If you say something like, "Ron Mattingly was my favorite Yankee," a thousand people will correct you in the most nasty, vehement way. And I feel sorry for the person who was a victim of autocorrect, or typed the wrong letter, or misheard something. I mean, it’s obvious. There’s this attitude of "I’m going to police everything you say." If that’s what you’re doing with your time, you’re not enjoying the best things about Twitter. I mean, I’m 52 years old, a father, a taxpayer. I consider myself overly educated. I have an awful lot of interests that give me happiness or provoke thought or have me concerned about my fellow human beings on this planet, but if I post support for a proposition that's on the ballot in another state for marriage equality, you immediately get 200 people all tweeting at you: "Shut your big fat face, you fat fuck, I only want to know what you think about food." It's absolutely the opposite way in which I approach the world and life. If there's someone I follow and find interesting—whether it's a photographer or a professional athlete or a bus driver—I also want to know what they think about things other than their area of expertise.

“Engage with the engaging. Follow the people you admire, read, listen to, and watch—and whose take on life is right-sized. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out.”

Mario Batali is very amusing about responding to his haters. Do you ever get involved?

I've said some things to people I don't regret, but occasionally someone has so much vehemence, I don't even understand what part of the human odyssey they're engaged in. Close-mindedness and contempt prior to investigation are two things I've dedicated my career to railing against. So when I see it in social media, I get pissy.

What bugs you most on Instagram?

People posting shitty pictures.

What’s your opinion on places like Momofuku Ko that have banned cameras?

I have no problem with a place banning photos, and here's why: In general, they're looking out for the greater good of their community. I was at the NoMad in New York, which at night is very dimly lit and beautiful. If someone is taking flash pictures in that main dining room with any sort of frequency, it's horrific. It's irritating to other diners.

You seem to have a sixth sense for social media. What’s the next big thing?

I think we’re gonna have real-time streaming video to share with friends. Snapchat is just the beginning. We’re going to see personal broadcast systems—“PBS” for the next generation.

A lot of people talk about how when you’re taking a photo of your table at a restaurant, with your sunglasses and book placed just so, it’s almost like a self-portrait. How do you look at this posturing?

It is a self-portrait. When you are into social media, you are art-directing your life. Here’s what I’m wearing when I go out at at night… Here’s what I’m eating… Here are my friends… We are posting things we believe give us status, much in the same way that, in a tribal world, things like jewelry and war paint tell you how many goats someone owns. This is the filthy lucre of our generation.